In 1980, a process of facts and decisions began, which brought about the identification of the projects and the start of the true construction work of the underground.

In that year, the municipal administration approved a rapid tramline project destined to connect Rivarolo with Principe and passing through the old Certosa tunnel.

After trams were eliminated, the tunnel was used by coaches, resulting in serious problems due to pollution and poor efficiency.

So the municipality thought to reactivate the tramline system, naturally using new, updated vehicles.

Due to reasons for re-using the existing infrastructures, therefore cost and time, the service should have operated, as before, in a mixed manner and that is, once outside the tunnel, on ordinary roads.

From an operational point of view, the ´concession´ procedure was chosen and assigned to the company Ansaldo Trasporti.

The project to extend the underground line was designed with the goal of entrusting the prevailing offer of public transportation to railway transportation by integrating the underground railway service with a reserved, high-capacity line in its own lane able to reach and serve the city´s central area in a reasonable journey time.

Therefore, the Metrogenova project has the goal of ensuring an underground-type of connection between the two main railway stations (Principe and Brignole) and the traditional traffic and public transportation junctions (Canepari, Brin, Di Negro, Darsena, Caricamento, Sarzano, De Ferrari and Corvetto).

The difficulty of being included in an intensely built-up environment (also due to the presence of important historic pre-existences) and the need to curb costs as much as possible brought about a solution for the project that provides for the greatest use possible of disused infrastructures: the Certosa tramline tunnel, harbour warehouses under Via B. Buozzi and the Grazie railway tunnels.

To date, the total investment sustained to realise the Genoa underground (Brin - Brignole) is approximately Euro 618 million, Euro 221 million of which have been financed by the state, Euro 60 million by the Region of Liguria and the remaining Euro 337 million by the municipality. 

February 4th, 2005 the De Ferrari station was inaugurated, which can be reached from Brin in ten minutes: with the activation of the second track from S. Giorgio, since December 20th, 2005, train frequency has decreased to just six minutes, guaranteeing a transportation capacity of four thousand passengers per hour in each direction.

The total Brin - Brignole section (6.8 km long and including 9 stations) will be able to transport approximately 20 million passengers a year, allowing the surface lines to be subsequently renovated and, in addition to limiting the costs, will also limit pollution levels.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BRIN-DE FERRARI SYSTEM

The main characteristics of the Brin-De Ferrari section are:
- Automatic rapid surface driverless transit system;
- Double-track, route with its own isolated lane;
- Section length 5.0 Km (between station axes), with:
- 93% in tunnels
- 4% in viaducts
- 3% on the ground
- 7 passenger service stations

BRIN-DE FERRARI OPERATING PERFORMANCE


Service from Brin to De Ferrari with a fleet of 18 vehicles (8 of which already in service since 1992 and a further 10 being delivered)
Brin to De Ferrari journey time =  590 sec. (10 min.)
Frequency = 300 sec. (5 min.)
No. trains on line = 6
Composition = double
Transportation capacity = 4848 pass./h in each direction
Total vehicle fleet necessary = no. 18

In addition to normal operations between Brin and S. Giorgio, the operating modalities of the operating section of Brin ? De Ferrari provide for implementing a service on two normal tracks between the S. Giorgio and De Ferrari stations, thus postponing normal service until the completion up to Brignole.

Once the trains have executed the stop at S. Giorgio, they continue in the direction of Sant´Agostino using one of the two through tracks (even or odd track). Upon arrival at De Ferrari, the direction is inverted and they return in the direction of S.Giorgio.